Towing Fee Account Story Generates More Questions

Since early 2013, the DeKalb Police Department has used around $300,000 of the $350,000 collected in administrative tow fees to buy a wide range of items outside of its regular budget.

There are a lot of potential issues arising from this revelation, from whether the tow fee ordinance is fair to how much the equipping of the new police station might have gone over budget. The article seems to suggest that, right now, the city is mostly concerned about the administrative tow ordinance itself coming under attack. But to me, we’re taking our eyes off the prize if we stray too far from the simple fact that $300,000 in public spending was not publicly accounted for in 2013.

I’m still ticked off on how the general funds sucks up all dollars then it gets dispersed where needed. For years when construction was good, hundreds and thousands of dollars from building permits were being used for other departments…..ILLEGAL! Profit is not to be made by government departments but Building and Zoning were kicking but profit wise.

Water fund is another one. How many millions of dollars have gone from the water fund to the general fund? These dollars went to found pet projects and programs that could not sustain themselves but the water fund was there to help them out. Then all of a sudden, money is needed to repair and paint towers and the city would just keep raising the water rate. Once again, a government department making huge profits for the city while fees keep climbing putting a strain on many households fighting to pay their bills.

The police department did go over budget but creative accounting and a massive shell game played by those in finances have been able to keep the local citizens fooled. I think many local people would be appalled at the fee structure our local police department has adopted to “generate” desperately needed dollars.

Maybe what our local government should do right now is put an immediate moratorium on all spending, purchases, and borrowing and get a much better understanding as to what is really going on here.

Question. Do we have any hired employees that are big in the horse business? Just wondering.

Comment by yinn on April 8, 2014 at 7:47 am

When you have auditors telling you that you had spending over budget of $3.1 million but a person can’t go to that budget and find all the “excess expenditures,” at that point I’d say there is some accounting going on that really needs investigation. And, yeah, I’m at that point.